“Dad admits that things look mighty black,” said Randy. “But he cautioned Andy and myself not to say too much before mother, because she’s worried to death as it is.”
“And that’s just what dad told me to be careful of,” put in Fred. “I never saw my mother look worse! Why, you’d think somebody in the family had died!”
“Well, we’ve got to admit that it is serious—the most serious thing that ever happened to us as far as our fortunes are concerned,” returned Jack. “This hold-up may wipe out The Rover Company entirely. The company has obligations totaling three hundred thousand dollars and all of these have got to be met inside of six weeks. Of course, they may get an extension of time from the banks and their other creditors. But unless the missing securities are recovered it isn’t likely that those extensions will be for long.”
“But their credit ought to be good; the company has always stood A, Number One!” cried Andy.
“Yes. And that will help some, so dad says. But it won’t help enough,” answered Jack. “I really don’t know what they can do unless they can get some of their friends to come to the front and help them out, and I know dad and your fathers would hate to ask them to do that under present circumstances, when everything looks so black.”
“What about the girls? Are they going to stay with Ruth now that this thing has happened?” asked Randy.
“Mother telegraphed to Mary that she had better come home,” answered Fred. “I suppose Martha will come with her. More than likely they’ll be just as anxious as we were to know what’s going on.”
“I wonder if Slugger Brown and Nappy Martell are really implicated in this?” mused Jack. “If they are, then the thing for us to do would be to try to locate them and force them to tell the truth.”
“If they were implicated, you can make sure that now the hold-up has been pulled off they’ll keep out of sight,” answered Randy. “The fellows who did that may be thousands of miles away by this time.”
“And to think the police haven’t been able to round up anybody!” sighed Andy.